Scoreboard:

Review:

Sometimes it either takes a show that I really love or really don’t to get me to sit down to write up a whole review for it. Will spoil it ahead of time, but I’m not going with the former reason in this case. I know some absolutely loved Dragonball Daima. Unfortunately I wasn’t one of them. So this review is going to break down the show and will likely get across why I didn’t enjoy it. My only hope is that Daima is the worst thing the franchise will ever create.

I also won’t be holding back in terms of spoilers. For most reviews I’ll do my best. But there’s simply no way to express how much frustration this show created without actually going into detail about it. I won’t spoil anything until getting to the next section, but readers be warned. This may end up more rant than anything else, but will at least try to keep it focused!

This show was a ride…

Story/Setting

The tragedy of Daima really starts here. The story isn’t good. I’m sure the intention was to try and capture some of that early DB magic. But you can’t put the genie in the bottle. You can de-age the cast, but there’s no going back. Not while Goku and Vegeta can still go Super Saiyan and Piccolo is still fused with Kami. They are handicapped a bit, but not that much! But the story really wants to pretend like they are just back in the original series on a light adventure. It doesn’t work at all throughout the whole show.

Some of the worst of it came later on when the main cast are fighting an army. This army couldn’t stand up to any one of them but the show really tries to get across how pressured they are. Mostly because Goku forgets he can go Super Saiyan until it’s unnecessary to at the very end. That ties to the filler issue. Some episodes just have no point. Things just stop for a random situation or a fight that doesn’t need much time spent on it. This is a 20 episode show. It doesn’t need padding out. They honestly could have turned Daima into a movie and it would have been fine or just a single cour while compacting some elements and losing a few fights against random thugs.

Kind of just threw things at the screen

It just feels like Daima is referencing things simply for the sake of having referenced them. SSJ4 is in this show. Is there a good reason for it to be here? Not really. Show can’t decide if it wants to not fit with Super/GT because Goku created the form offscreen and didn’t try to use it until after Neva…boosted him. Or if it just wants the move to be a magic transformation that this mysterious Namekian pulls out of nowhere. They just wanted SSJ4 in it! That’s all. Do they take time to set it up in a good way like in GT? Yes, the show has 20 episodes but they don’t spend any of those building up to this transformation. They just have it happen. Because the story in Daima doesn’t really care about how it gets somewhere or even where that destination actually is.

Vegeta has SSJ3 in this show. Does that make sense in tandem with the rest of the series? It’s a stretch. Vegeta doesn’t comment on reasons why he’d never use SSJ3 again, but maybe he just didn’t feel like using it against Beerus? It’s a shaky element that isn’t thought about too hard. Because the chance to have Vegeta transform into SSJ3 was more important than making sense ensuring it made sense. This is what I call bad fanservice. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to give the fans a treat. But consistency within the universe the story is taking place in matters. If any random thing can happen for a random reason, why should anyone care?

Wasn’t all bad

That’s not to say the story had no good moments. Sometimes the comedy did land (which is good since it was very joke heavy). The bones of the show aren’t bad. There’s something to be said about exploring the demon world. It’s not a place that was heavily delved into in previous DB series. There was potential for characters like Piccolo to shine as they visit the ancient homeland of his people. I won’t say the show does much with that potential, but it had potential! They effectively end the show on a note of “please don’t anything about this show seriously.” Which is a nice message. Better at the start than the end, but a nice message.

I worried about Goku at times

Characters

Did I say story and setting was the weakest part of this show? Because characters might actually be the worst part of this show. It’s a coin toss. In a lot of cases, they certainly took the excuse of turning the characters into children in order to allow some fairly dumb actions.

I’m not sure if Goku’s mind aged back like his body or if he was just using the excuse of being turned into a kid to act out. But speaking of Goku I’ll have to immediately give him a sidewise look when thinking about his actions in Super which come right after this. Because I sure do recall him having an issue using a power given to him by others early in that show, but having no issues using a power-up entirely gifted to him by Neva in Daima. The weirder thing is that Daima in canon will have happened first. So at some point between Daima and Super he’ll have both forgotten he can turn into a pseudo SSJ4 and get picky about where his powers come from.

Vegeta had his struggles

Vegeta truly has highs and lows in Daima. At his best he’s showing off SSJ3 and getting some decent moments to be the main fighter in the show. There is satisfaction when he crushes his first opponent and gives SSJ3 a very, very rare win! It was nice when Vegeta got turned back to normal since for a while it really did feel like him. There were some good chances for him to stand out. But…there were a lot of low points. Vegeta noticeably does worse than Goku versus the Tamagami. And he pretty much gets wrecked multiple times against the last boss to either let Goku stand out later or reveal some secrets of their opponent. Either way, Vegeta gets very few wins against anything that isn’t a thug. But he does better than the next character I’m mentioning.

This sums up Piccolo’s role

What is Piccolo doing in this show? By the end of it I had to really ask myself that one. I wasn’t sure why Gohan was absolutely banished, but I’m equally baffled as to what Piccolo is doing here. You’d think a trip to the demon realm would mean something for his character. But it doesn’t. He has no role in this show besides being able to say he was there. There’s only one chance for him to stand out in the show and he fails. The most noteworthy result of his presence will be the excuse to make him a DLC character in the Sparking Zero game. But this isn’t a solely Daima issue. DB has had no idea what to do with Piccolo since after the Cell Saga. Despite Daima having a lot of room for characterization it gives Piccolo almost no moments to stand out.

The best of the new characters

There’s not a lot to say about the new characters. Glorio is the best of them like I said before. He at least has a decent character arc and isn’t a bother. But everyone else is pretty much unimportant or is Neva who is a plot device. Main Kuu and Duu were played up a bit as possible threats, but they were just comic relief. That these things have the same origin as Majin Buu is kind of sad. Will also note here that they did retcon the origins of Buu, but for no other reason than just because. It doesn’t add anything to their characters or the setting. It’s just a change they made.

Not a great villain

Most of the antagonists are pretty stupid. Degesu is just the Supreme Kai’s evil brother and he has no purpose. I don’t even think he knows what he’s doing half the time. Arinsu is his evil sister who somewhat has a plan. She kind of earns getting a pair of powerful fools like Kuu and Duu to act as her lackeys. They played her up early as the smart villainess type. Arinsu though is often just confused and surprised by most things that happen in this show. But she turns out better than some characters in terms of having an arc.

Gomah…is Gomah. For 90% of the show he’s just an idiot who’s master plan was to turn the DB cast into children. He does make a point that he should have just wished for a legendary McGuffin that he was also searching for. Since that thing does make him stupidly powerful. But he was still the guy who got this plot rolling due to his thoughtless plans. He does turn into a poor man’s Jiren later in the show, but it doesn’t make him a better character. Gomah is a very durable and annoying punching bag. Obviously, they weren’t aiming for Frieza or Cell here. But he wasn’t an impressive antagonist regardless.

Show looked amazing

Visuals/Audio

This is Daima’s singular redeeming factor. The show looks great. When they are fighting it looks good and the transformations pop. I may not like the design of Daima’s version of SSJ4, but I don’t think it’s poorly drawn or animated. No question that Toei poured so much in this show. This show allows us to see the potential Dragonball still has and how amazing things could look in the future. And it definitely shows how much can be carried by pure animation quality alone. If beam quality could be measured this show would be getting extremely high marks. Big attacks look good and the movements seem fluid. This is how good DB can look!

Audio-wise the show is fine. The main cast are still doing a fantastic job. Full credit to Masako Nozawa. It’s incredible that she’s still doing Goku’s voice after so many years. And credit to the rest of the cast who do a great job. Can’t comment on the dub since I didn’t follow along with it. As for the OP/ED…they were decent. They weren’t great. Not in terms of visuals or the song choice. But they were perfectly fine.

Some reactions to this review I’m sure

Final Thoughts

It brings me no joy to give a DB anime anything less than a top tier rating. But I just don’t think Daima is that good. It’s carried almost entirely based on visuals and crumbs of fanservice in place of good story, characterization or just plain logic. That it has done well and been well received shows how much strength the DB brand has and the future it has. There are elements of Daima that obviously worked for people. It looks great, there’s an attempt to show love to elements like SSJ4, and they clearly tried to make something fun. No shame in loving it.

I would have loved to give this show more praise considering it is the last work that Akira Toriyama gave us. The impact he’s left in people’s lives is not to be taken lightly. Who knows how so many people would have gone down different paths if DB wasn’t there as a shining example. That will always be appreciated.

Here’s hoping the future is bright

But if I don’t think a show is good, I can’t lie and it was. I cannot while being remotely true to what I think give this show anything better than a C. It has flashes of brilliance. But those flashes are far too empty and few over a 20-episode series to give it any higher rating than this. Here’s hoping the future of DB is a bit brighter than what we saw here.